Actually historically when Haughey was a junior minister, he introduced free home fuel and free nationwide travel for OAP's.

Its a shame no government in the UK has ever done that..

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india-juliet said:

Compared to Eamon De Valera, Charlie was not that bad!

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In 1970/71 Haughey was involved with a cabal within Fianna FÃ¡il which sought to illegally import arms for the IRA (an act at best seditious, and at worst treasonous), and he advocated military intervention in Northern Ireland (ironic considering his party's inbuilt opposition to the Defence Forces).

He was a political opportunist of the first order, who despite his frequent claims to being a Republican, was first and foremost a Haugheyite; he was not above aping the very Anglo-Irish gentry he and his fellow Fianna FÃ¡il 'men of no property' purported to hate. He also tacitly approved of the Argentine invasion of the Falklands (but then, having burnt a Union Jack raised by Trinity students on VE Day 1945, this was only par for the course). In the 1970s and 80s, when the Republic was hemorrhaging people and jobs, he and his cronies were living the high life, whilst his collusion with certain businessmen allowed a great deal of capital to escape tax - and therefore further weaken the economy. The revisionist blather about how he laid the groundwork for the Celtic Tiger will no doubt reach a crescendo as his state funeral nears. The best response I have heard to this sort of thinking is that one doesn't thank someone who has just robbed and beaten you senseless for belatedly calling an ambulance.

A series of political, financial and personal scandals have tarnished his image and reputation in recent years. In the late 1990s the public were shocked to hear revelations about his extravagant private life. At the Moriarty Tribunal it was revealed that Haughey received more than Â£8 million over an 18-year period from various benefactors and businessmen. One payment alone of Â£1.3 million came from the entrepreneur Ben Dunne. He was severely ridiculed when he was found out to have spent large sums of Fianna FÃ¡il party money on Charvet shirts and expensive dinners in a top Dublin restaurant, while preaching belt tightening and implementing budget cuts as a national policy. While giving evidence at the tribunal, Haughey faced criminal charges for obstructing the work of the tribunal, and also faced an angry crowd at Dublin Castle where his wrongdoings came to light.

One fact which sticks in the minds of most Irish people when considering Haughey's true attitude to friendship and wealth was the revelation that money raised by donation and intended for a liver transplant for the late Brian Lenihan, a former government minister and supposed lifelong friend of Haughey, ended up in Charles Haughey's bank account. It was spent on Â£700 shirts from Charvet of Paris. Brian Lenihan died soon after.